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McCainâ€™s Lunatic â€œReverendâ€? Hagee

Is Hagee crazy? Well consider the following, from Richâ€™s column: â€œMr. Hagee, it's true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled â€˜homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.â€™â€?

[Elections 2008: McCain's Crazy Minister]

New York Times’ columnist Frank Rich’s latest article exposes the media double-standard and racism at play ever since the Rev. Jeremiah Wright article gained major play on Youtube.

Rich writes about the crackpot “reverend” John Hagee, who has endorsed Senator John McCain on Feb. 27. Hagee is a lunatic who said Hitler was “efficient” in the way he dealt with Jews and that Hitler did not do anything that the Romans hadn’t done in the past.

Why have George Stephanopoulos, Tim Russert, George Will, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and the other protectors of the American way of life not weighed in on this lunatic alleged “reverend” who heads a Texas mega church.

Everything that Rev. Wright has says pares in comparison to this crackpot. Is it a coincidence that the lunatic Hagee happens to be White and the candidate he supports, McCain is also White? (To listen to the lunatic's lecture see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-1BjJ...)

As Rich writes is his column, Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama, and wielding a pointer, pokes at the image of a woman with huge-sized breasts, and refers to her as "the Great Whore." He says the woman was drinking "the blood of the Jewish people" and that the “Great Whore” represented the Roman Church, which has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history; from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

So where are the calls from the protectors of American morality for McCain to reject and renounce and repudiate “reverend” Hagee? As Rich asks in his column, “Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee's views?”

Since then, Mr. McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements.

Is Hagee crazy? Of course.

Consider the following, from Rich’s column: “Mr. Hagee, it's true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled ‘homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.’”

Hagee, Rich notes, made his crazy claim on NPR, in September 2006, and repeated it about two weeks ago in a radio interview.

Let’s see when The New York Times, Rich’s own newspaper, has this story on the frontpage; the newspaper, a fading voice, has been on a mission to try and derail Senator Obama’s campaign, with hysterical articles about Rev. Wright, several featured on the frontpage.

Obama and Wright both have been subjected to selective journalistic tyranny by newspapers like the Times; abusing is wide circulation and distribution to hijack the American elections in favor of the candidate it endorsed, Hillary Clinton. The Times has engaged in a media version of a pre-emptive coup detat.

It was only after a reporter asked McCain on April 24 that he referred to Hagee’s lunatic preaching as “nonsense” and that he did not endorse Hagee’s any more than Obama endorsed Wright's.

While McCain may not have been a Hagee parishioner for 20 years, he actively sought Hagee’s endorsement, Rich writes.

“Even after Mr. Hagee's Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton,” Rich writes. “Mr. McCain instead told George Stephanopoulos two Sundays ago that while he condemns any ‘anti-anything’ remarks by Mr. Hagee, he is still ‘glad to have his endorsement.’”

“I wonder if Mr. McCain would have given the same answer had Mr. Stephanopoulos confronted him with the graphic video of the pastor in full ‘Great Whore’ glory,” Rich adds. “But Mr. McCain didn't have to fear so rude a transgression. Mr. Hagee's videos have never had the same circulation on television as Mr. Wright's. A sonorous white preacher spouting venom just doesn't have the telegenic zing of a theatrical black man.”

Rich also reminds us that McCain spoke at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in 2006. Yet, on September 13, 2001, Falwell blamed the attacks on America's abortionists, feminists, pagans, gays and A.C.L.U. lawyers. (For Falwell's crazy rants see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CAcdta_8I)

“It is entirely fair for any voter to weigh Mr. Obama's long relationship with his pastor in assessing his fitness for office,” Rich writes. “It is also fair to weigh Mr. Obama's judgment in handling this personal and political crisis as it has repeatedly boiled over. But whatever that verdict, it is disingenuous to pretend that there isn't a double standard operating here. If we're to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates — and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them — we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick.”

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